For a Christian, morality is never simply about the keeping of the law, and avoiding punishment.  There are many people who obey the law and stay on the right path, not because they are 100% committed to the law, but because they don’t want to get arrested or get in trouble.  If they knew they could get away with it, or no one was watching, they would do as they pleased.  In other words, they do the right thing due to the threat of negative consequences.  This is not the pathway for Christians, as Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.

There are others who do the right thing and keep the commandments in order to look good; in order for people to think well of them.  The Pharisees were like that.  They are not truly good people, they just look good.  Inside, they are insincere and hypocrites.  This is also not the pathway for Christians, as Jesus made clear throughout the Gospel; he hated hypocrisy and self-righteousness.  

Then there is another kind of person who likes to do good in order to please and curry favor.  These are the obsequious.  They are also insincere, but in a different way from the Pharisees.  They will find what it is that pleases you, what you like or want, and then use good to manipulate and ultimately to seduce you into giving what they want.  They do good all right, but there are strings attached, they expect something in return; the right way is the way for them to “get ahead.”  

Many Christians think they are really holy when they come to this level.  They want to please you, they want to please God.  But it is not enough, it is not the pathway that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.  He calls us to “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  

This same theme was already stressed in the Old Testament: “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”  Because we belong to God who is holy, we are called to His holiness.
And God is Good, not because He actually wants to do something else but does good to stay out of difficulty.  God is Good, not to look Good and solicit praise and admiration.  God is Good, not because He wants something in return.  God is Good unconditionally, because that is Who He Is.


It is to this same genuine goodness that we are called: sincere, honest, humble, natural, simple, true goodness.  Goodness whether others like it or not; Goodness whether there are laws or not; Goodness whether it will get us ahead or whether it will bring us envy and hatred.  We will be good, simply because that is who we are, children of God, people who belong to God, followers of Christ. 

In the Gospel (Sermon on the Mount), Jesus shows how this teaching has application in concrete situations.  He talks about “eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,” which is the principle of justice.  Jesus knows the importance of Justice, but he wants his followers not to be trapped by the limitation of justice, which has a tendency to lock you into revenge.  When someone attacks you, justice permits you to attack back.  When someone robs you, justice justifies you in constraining the thief to give it back, and with interest.  Jesus says that is not yet perfection.  

When you belong to God, and have Him, and are rooted in goodness, you have that which cannot be stolen, robbed, harmed, or taken away, unless you yourself compromise it.  You have a freedom which others do not, who have to use violence and deceit to get what they want.  Jesus is saying that some battles are not worth fighting, because they will detract from true goodness, and drag us down into a worldliness that is not befitting the children of God.  Some battles will endanger our peace and joy, and these are not worth it.  

If someone steals your tunic, give them your cloak as well!  In other words, there are spiritual realities that are much more important than these things.  Most people cling too much to the world, to the flesh, to possessions, to their own sense of self-importance.  Most people are way too easily offended when someone strikes at them, dares to criticize them, or hurl an insult against them.  Jesus says, don’t worry about it.  You have God’s grace, what more do you want?  

Presentation of the Lord
(Lk 2:22-40)

The day of the Lord’s Nativity is known as “Christmas.”  Forty days later, the day of the Lord’s Presentation in the Temple is known as “Candlemas.”  The Light which was born into a dark world and manifested to the kings through a star, now fills the Temple as a “light to the nations, and the glory of His people Israel.”  On this day, it is the Church’s tradition to bless the candles used throughout the year during the Mass.  Every time we celebrate the Mass, we echo the Presentation, as the altar servers with the priest and ministers process into the sanctuary, carrying the candles which represent the presence of our Lord and the light of faith.  

There are two things taking place for Mary and Joseph on this day as they fulfill the precepts of the Law.  One is the purification of Mary following childbirth.  The law of Moses understood that childbirth is a sacred thing, in which the woman has a special cooperation with God, being the bearer of life.  Through childbirth, God the creator is glorified and worshipped.  Like the priest who must purify himself before and after going up to the Temple to offer the holy sacrifice, the woman must purify herself before and after giving birth, in order to signify that what takes place through her body is holy and miraculous.  

Today, in a culture that fails to honor life as a sacred gift from God – where people do as they please – Catholics imitate Mary and Joseph, whose lives are governed by the holy Laws of God.  Five times, the Gospel today stresses how Mary and Joseph were acting “according to the law of Moses.”  Mary and Joseph teach us the correct way to live, which is not according to our own law and whatever we please, but we must live in obedience to the laws of God, with the single purpose of glorifying him.  

Even though the rest of the world does what it pleases, Christians, who are God’s people, must follow God’s laws with regard to marriage and childbirth.  This means living separately while prepare for marriage.  And when they get married, it must be in God’s sight, in Church, before His altar, and not simply in a civil ceremony at the court house.  And during marriage, children must be seen not simply as fulfilling human family plans, but above all as gifts from God which serve His purpose and plan for the human family.  

This is the second thing taking place for Mary and Joseph: not only is Mary completing the sacred act of childbirth through her purification, but Mary and Joseph are consecrating their firstborn son, acknowledging that he belongs to God.  
In the Law of Moses, God commanded the people to offer a sacrifice of redemption for their firstborn sons.  The oldest son had special duties and obligations within the family.  He was the bearer of the family name, and would inherit the family estate, continuing the sacred heritage of particular family, clan, or tribe.  The firstborn son also belonged to God.  God commanded Abraham to offer his firstborn son Isaac to him.  Later, when the Pharaoh dared to persecute the Israelites in Egypt, whom God regarded as his firstborn son among the nations, He slew the firstborn sons of Egypt.  

The Israelites always understood that one of their children, the firstborn, the most important, had to be given to God.  Thus the Law commanded that he be Presented in the Temple on the 40th day and a sacrifice of redemption be offered.  In the case of Mary and Joseph who were poor, the price of redemption was “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”  It may have been a simple offering, but it was deeply important and symbolic.  

When I was young, sodas still came in glass bottles, and when you were done you could get 5 cents back on the empty bottle.  It was called “redemption.”  You take the bottle back to the store to be “redeemed:” Coca-cola would redeem or “buy back” the bottle from you so it could be used again.  

“Redemption,” to “redeem,” means to “buy back.”  The firstborn son belongs to God, but if the parents pay the price of redemption, they may keep him and raise him at home as their own.  Just as God ultimately allowed Abraham to keep Isaac, He allows parents to keep their children.  But He makes it very clear to them: this child is not yours, he is Mine, he belongs to Me.  

Catholics are no longer bound by the law of Moses, because Christ has fulfilled the law.  But in the sacrament of baptism, we still proclaim the same truth: every child belongs first to God, and secondly to the parents.  Catholics still try keep the custom of baptizing infants within a few weeks of birth.  In my own case, I was born on November 7th.  Within 40 days, November 25th, my parents brought me to the Church for baptism, for Redemption.  

But what is different now from the Law of Moses, is that Christ pays the price of redemption.  The sacrifice is no longer two turtledoves, it is his own sacrifice. Christ pays the price for the sins of the world by his own blood on the Cross, and through that sacrifice purchases or “buys back” sinners for God.  Christ is the world’s redeemer, he pays the price of redemption so that we can belong to God again.  Through baptism, we are redeemed!

When the infant Jesus is brought to the Temple, the old man Simeon and Anna speak prophetic words about him.  Simeon proclaims him the “light of the nations, and the glory of Israel.”  Simeon also prophecies that he will be a sign of contradiction that will lay bare the thoughts of many hearts, and that Mary’s own heart will be pierced by a sword.  Jesus’ life will fulfill God’s plan. 

My parents were blessed with five children, and each of them were consecrated in turn to God.  As to God’s plan for each of them, they didn’t know.  However, my parents always raised us with the understanding that we belonged first to God, and it was always their hope and understanding that at least one of their children would be further consecrated to the temple and set apart for priestly service or religious life. It ended up being the third-born instead of the firstborn.  
Because they lived that way, following Joseph and Mary who were obedient to the law, all their children were raised to live holy vocations, whether through priesthood, marriage and family, or the single life.  And each of my siblings has been in some way a surprise, a “sign of contradiction” to the world.  I think of my younger brother with his seven beautiful children: there would not be seven beautiful children, six girls and a boy, if they had followed the ways of the world, instead of seeing every child as a sign and gift of God.  I think of my older brother, who raised two beautiful children in difficult circumstances, who now are starting families of their own.  I think of my other brother, not called to marriage, who was the first in our family to consider the priestly vocation, and now lives single, in service to the poor and mentally ill.  I think of my younger sister, who chose her house near the church where their children could attend school and be raised in the tradition of the Catholic faith.  “Sign of contradiction.”  

And also, “sword of sorrow.”  Now, none of us are saints.  Each has also been a sword of sorrow to my parents, and each of us has experienced that sword in our lives as well.  In particular, our teenage years were not always the easiest on the parents.  Rebellion, selfishness, and ingratitude are difficult crosses for parents to bear, who are doing their best to guide and direct their children, who don’t always appreciate what it is they are trying to accomplish.  To be consecrated to God means that our lives will have a sharing in the Cross of Christ.  Again and again, children, teenagers, young adults, and even adults, need to be reminded of the day of their presentation, the day of their baptism: your life is different, you can’t do what everyone else does, you can’t do as you please, you belong to God and your life is to fulfill His purpose and His will.  Be obedient to your consecration, and follow His laws!  

When Jesus came into the Temple, the temple lit up with the Light of the World.  And God spoke words of prophecy regarding His beloved Son.  When a Christian is baptized, he receives that light of Christ into his life, and becomes “another Christ.”  Let us then, remember the words spoken prophetically to us on the day of our baptism, when our godparents lit our candle from the Easter candle: “Receive the Light of Christ.  This light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. You have been enlightened by Christ. Walk always as a child of the light. May you keep the flame of faith alive in your heart.”  

January 26, 2014 
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
(Mt 4:12-17)

When Jesus the Messiah began his public ministry, he did something unexpected.  Instead of centering his ministry in Jerusalem and Judea to the south, he established his headquarters in the region of Galilee far to the north, in the ancient tribal regions of Zebulun and Napthali.  This area was part of the old northern kingdom, long since conquered by the Assyrians, who scattered the ten “lost tribes” of Israel.  At the time of Jesus it was a mix of pagan gentile peoples, and small colonies of Jewish settlements.  

Jesus began his ministry there, in fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah (Is 9:1-2): “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.”    

This Gospel reading is very apropos today.  As in the time of Jesus, we live in small parish colonies in the midst of a gentile society given over to pagan ways.  At one time our land too was more Christian in its values and laws, but that ancient Christian heritage has been banished and exiled.  Now our land too has fallen into darkness and become overshadowed by death.  

This week we remembered a black day in our nation’s history: January 22nd, the legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court in 1973.  On this day it became legal to put away innocent people in our society, for the sake of convenience and personal autonomy.  For the first hundred years of its founding, our nation was marred by another injustice: the legalization slavery.  Abortion is a hundred times worse, because whereas slavery treats a human being as a piece of property to be owned, abortion treats a human being as a life to be disposed at will.  January 22nd, 1973, was the day our nation definitively rejected God. 

On that day we put blinders over our eyes, and we deliberately chose to live in the darkness instead of the light of Truth.  There are all sorts of gymnastics we do to try justify abortion: arguments, lies, denials, and twisting of language.  We focus on the difficult, extreme, and exceptional medical cases, as if that has anything to do with what was actually legalized in 1973.  We speak about freedom of “choice,” but overlook the fact that the choice involved is actually a “child,” another person.

The supreme court invented a new “right to privacy,” nowhere mentioned in the constitution, entirely overlooking the right to “life,” enshrined and proclaimed in all the foundational documents of our nation.  People talk about “reproductive freedom,” and “women’s health,” when in fact freedom is destroyed, health compromised, and motherhood injured.  People talk about “health clinics,” when in fact they are death camps, factories of human destruction surrounded by high walls and barbed wire.  

Very simply, the legalization of abortion is the legalization of murder.  It is a denial of God, who is the Creator and author of life.  It is the failure to respect the mystery of human life, which is an individual miracle of God each time it happens.  It is a failure to respect the responsibility of marriage and sexuality, and if we are honest we have to admit that the real reason we keep abortion legal in our nation is because we wish to indulge in fornication and not have to worry about the consequences, which is a child.  Very simply, then, abortion is a rejection of God and His law, in order to justify a selfish lifestyle that suits our convenience. 

In his 1995 encyclical entitled Evangelium Vitae, the “Gospel of Life,” pope John Paul II clarified how respect for the sanctity of human life, from the moment of conception to natural death, belongs to the domain of God alone; not to man, not to society, not to legislators or supreme court judges, presidents, or politicians.  Abortion is therefore not a political issue, it is of the essence of the faith.  In his encyclical, the pope invoked his infallibility in this teaching, to proclaim that the life of the unborn, from the moment of conception, is as sacred as any other time of the human life span, and is to be treated as such.  In other words, to profess that abortion can be acceptable is to deny the faith of the Gospel.  It is a heresy.  A Catholic cannot be pro-abortion without denying the Gospel of Christ.  

The Gospel is a Gospel of the dignity of life.  We just completed the season of Christmas in which we proclaim the Incarnation, how God became man.  When did God become man?  At the time of the nativity when he was born? Or at the moment of conception when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to be with child?  In what way would it be conceivable, to imagine even for an instant, that the Blessed Virgin Mary or St. Joseph, had some kind of right or freedom, or justification, to terminate her pregnancy?  

Every human life fulfills the plan of God.  Every human life is co-created between two human beings and God the Creator.  God is the creator of the human soul directly, which is immortal and spiritual.  The man and woman are procreators with God, of the material body for the new person.  Man cooperates with God; God cooperates with man.  Man must respect the laws of God.  

“The people sit in darkness… and dwell in a land overshadowed by death.”  When Jesus came into that region, he began to preach saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Today the Church must continue the work of the Jesus, which is to bring light in the darkness.  And the Church must do what Jesus did, which is Preach and Heal.  

We must Preach the truth and issue the call to repentance.  With regard to the sin of abortion, the Church does so forcefully, and attaches the penalty of excommunication to any Catholic who would procure an abortion, or assist with its procurement.  Excommunication is the Church’s ultimate call to repentance.  Abortion is not just a mortal sin, it is the crime of murder.  It destroys the family and society, and it destroys the person who commits the crime.  It requires deep repentance and conversion, and healing which only Christ can bring.  

When Jesus went about the towns and villages of Galilee teaching and healing, he exposed evil and sin, and brought the healing graces of God to people who were suffering under the lies and dominion of the evil one.  Clarity about the truth, and forgiveness for those who repented, is how Jesus established the Kingdom.  The Church must do the same today.

Pray for bishops and priests, that they might be bold and fearless in confronting this evil, and especially confronting politicians who would justify this crime.  As Catholics we can never support pro-choice, pro-abortion political candidates or platforms, and we must be vocal in our opposition to the point of public witness, protest, and demonstration.  It is one of the greatest scandals in our society that among the proponents of this sin are some who claim to be Catholic.  

Revelation (Rv 12:4) depicts the devil as a great dragon who attacks the woman, seeking to devour her unborn child.  When Jesus preached and healed, he expelled the demons.  The Church today, by the power of the Gospel and the healing ministry of confession, has Christ’s power to expel demons, and establish God’s Kingdom.  It is a great spiritual battle, and one we all share.  

Mary is the Woman whose offspring will crush the serpent.  We, united with Christ, are her children, and we share, with her, that mission.  Let us invoke our Blessed Mother as we seek to fulfill this mission Christ gives us today: to bring light to those who dwell in darkness, and to a land overshadowed by death.